Dog in the Manger

An Eli Paxton Mystery by Mike Resnick

Review: Formerly an officer with the Chicago Police Department, now a private investigator in Cincinnati, Eli Paxton takes on a case to find a missing dog — not just any dog, mind you, but "Baroness von Tannelwald", the reigning champion of the Westminster Dog Show — in Dog in the Manger, a newly reissued edition of a mystery first published in 1997 by Mike Resnick.

The Baroness's handler, Hubert Lantz, was on tour with the dog when her owner, Maurice Nettles, decides he wants her returned home. Lantz had arranged for the Baroness to be flown from Cincinnati to Arizona but neither the dog, nor Alice Dent, another member of his staff sent to accompany her, arrived. Eli starts by trying to find Alice thinking, logically, that one will lead to the other, but Alice has been found dead in her car, presumably the result of an accident. Eli then discovers that the air freight company has no shipment record for the dog. Other "accidental" deaths follow … and now there's an airplane missing. Could one dog, even a prize-winning one, be the cause of so much crime?

Eli Paxton has a captivating charm and following him along as he travels from Cincinnati to Arizona to Mexico and back to Cincinnati is a real pleasure. He's put in several threatening situations, even taking refuge from his troubles by hiding and sleeping in — what else? — a dog house one night. (He has better luck with a female dog handler he meets along the way.) Though written as the first in a series, no books followed featuring this character. (The author explains why in a forward.) That will change, however, this coming June when the second in the series is scheduled to be published, The Trojan Colt. Readers will welcome seeing Eli in action again.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Dog in the Manger.

Acknowledgment: Seventh Street Books provided a copy of Dog in the Manger for this review.